Deshmukh, Chavan bury hatchet?

Political adversaries Ashok Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh seem to have resolved their differences.

Political adversaries Ashok Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh seem to have resolved their differences. The reconciliation happened on Saturday at Chavan’s hometown, Nanded. “He was in town, so I invited him for tea. We spoke informally on several issues including the development of Marathwada ahead of the state budget,” Chavan said.

The meeting of minds of the two Congress leaders comes at a time when the party’s equations with ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have hit a rough patch. The Congress has been outperformed by the NCP in successive local elections, and the party is worried about its prospects in the 2014 assembly elections.

The meeting is also significant given that the CBI has begun arrests in the Adarsh housing scam, in which the two former chief ministers are under the scanner.

On Saturday, Chavan indicated issues between Deshmukh and him had been sorted. “There was a perception that [we] were engaged in a bitter fight. I hope there will be no more misunderstanding about us now. There were minor issues and they are no longer relevant,” he said.

Deshmukh told the media that the two men were “like brothers” and there were no differences between them.